Emily: Hi it's Emily from Bite Size Vegan and welcome to another vegan nugget. Today
I'm honored to be joined by my friend and mentor Gary Yourofsky, who has graciously
agreed to be here and answer questions that you, the Bite Size Vegan audience, have sent
to me. I'm going to be releasing this interview in a series of videos, so be sure to stay
tuned to the channel. Gary I just wanted to thank you so much for taking time out of your
busy schedule to be here and answer some of these questions.
Gary: Anything for you Emily. Emily: Thank you.
Emily: So you were actually banned from some countries entirely. Would you talk little
bit about where you are banned from and why?
Gary: Canada was the first country to ban me. That happened in 1999 because on April
30, it might've been Easter Sunday, 1997, I went to Blenheim Ontario, to the Eberts
Mink Concentration Camp, and I opened up the cages for 1,542 mink, gave them a chance to
be free. In case you aren't aware, mink are killed in two ways on this planet but one
basic way is a manual neck break. You can take them out of the cage and snap their neck.
And the other method is a mass gassing. So I gave these animals a chance to be free.
Holes were cut in the perimeter fence, small dirt road, and then across the dirt road 600
acres of forest. Things went pretty good for the mink that night, did not go well for me.
I was apprehended, I was arrested. So Canada banned me. Now I disagree of course with being
arrested, with being sentenced to a maximum-security detention center for six months. I did 77
days then they deported me and threw me out of the country, made me persona non grata.
Now again, I disagree with what Canada did, because here's what doesn't make sense. If
I went to Canada, from Michigan where I live, and I broke the necks of Mink, I'd be welcomed.
I'd be a fucking hero. But I went there and I tried to stop the killing, and I was labeled
an international terrorist. Understand, not just a terrorist, because I'm from Michigan
that's Canada. I'm now an international terrorist. And what was interesting was when I was put
in my unit the first night in prison, I didn't know anybody of course so I'm standing by
myself in the back corner of the cell with about 20 guys, and the alpha male's got the
clicker on, he's putting on the 5-5:30 news, and guess what the lead story is? International
terrorist Gary Yourofsky sentenced to jail tonight. Gary Yourofsky, international terrorist.
So the guys realized I was in the cell with them finally, I saw one guy going that's the
guy over there, that's the guy over there. And the alpha male got in, he walked up and
he said, you and international terrorist? I said yeah I guess so. He said that's funny
man you don't look like an international terrorist. I said maybe it's because I'm the exact opposite
of one. I told him what I did, and nobody could believe that I was in this place for
letting animals free. For giving them a chance not to be killed. But that's how messed up
this world is man look at all of the people throughout history that everybody admires
collectively. Nelson Mandela, Rosa Parks and Dr. King and Gandhi, all sentenced to prison.
All radical lawbreakers. When you try to bring peace and justice to the oppressed, you are
labeled a terrorist, you are imprisoned, or you are assassinated. Quite a world we live
in.
Gary: Oh I'm sorry you asked me about the other countries. And then, let's see, in 2004,
2005, I got a letter from the United Kingdom which comprises four countries. Britain, Northern
Ireland, Wales and Scotland. And they banned me. But here's what's weird about this ban.
I've never set foot in the UK. I've never even planned on going there. They preemptively
threw me out. Hey Yourofsky, you thinking about coming here and talking about peace
to animals? Don't come here you're not getting through our borders. But are they saying,
I want you to think about the contradictions, is the UK saying that if I instead traveled
the world and told people that animals don't count, taught them how to kill animals more
efficiently, how to cook their flesh in certain way, that I would be welcomed? The world is
backwards. Again we're always criminalizing peaceful actions. Always criminalizing bringing
justice to the oppressed. And they want to act like being oppressive is the norm. Sadly
it is, but it's not normal.
Emily: Gary I just want to thank you so much for giving us your time and I've been asked
on behalf of so many of my viewers to just thank you for everything that you do. So thank
you so much.
Gary: Thank you. Keep on. Everybody pass her stuff around, it's tight stuff. Honestly,
BiteSizeVegan.com, share it.
Emily: Stay tuned to the Bite Size Vegan channel for more installations of Gary's interview.
I'll also be posting bonus footage of questions that don't make it to the channel, into the
VIP section of BiteSizeVegan.com, which you can access for free by signing up for the
Nugget newsletter. Give the video a thumbs-up if you enjoyed it, and be sure to subscribe
so that you never miss a nugget. Now go live vegan, and I'll see you soon.